Mirrors became essential components of indoor architecture as they are capable of improving the comfort of an ambience through a widening in the perceived volume. In general, in modern and contemporary architecture, reflective surfaces are used to provide for specific perceptions by an observer.
The following disclosure is at least partly based on specific nanoparticle based reflective units, and their application in the field of active illumination such as in lighting in general.
As will be disclosed herein, the specific nanoparticle based reflective units may be used to provide for a specific visual perception of a wall for the observer. Those units may provide specific chromatic and reflective features that provide for properties of sun imitating lighting systems such as described, for example, in the international patent application PCT/EP2014/059802, filed on 13 May 2014 by the same applicants, in which reflective and diffusing layers are combined.
On Rayleigh-like diffusing layers, several applications such as EP 2 30 478 A1, EP 2 304 480 A1, and WO 2014/076656 A1, filed by the same applicants, disclose lighting systems that use a light source producing visible light, and a panel containing nanoparticles used in transmission, i.e. the light source and the illuminated area are positioned on opposing sides of the panel. During operation of those lighting systems, the panel receives the light from the light source and acts in transmission as a so-called Rayleigh diffuser, namely it diffuses incident light similarly to the earth atmosphere in clear-sky conditions. Specifically, the concepts refer to directional light with lower correlated color temperature (CCT), which corresponds to sunlight, and diffuse light with larger CCT, which corresponds to the light of the blue sky.
Introducing a reflective feature as, for example, in PCT/EP2014/059802 mentioned above, however, may affect the perception due to the presence of the reflection due to inhomogeneity in color and luminance that may affect the desired optical and visual effect.
The present disclosure is directed, at least in part, to improving or overcoming one or more aspects of prior systems.